This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, these statements are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is or is not prior art.
Bacterial infections have become a serious threat to the global public health due to the dearth of effective antimicrobials. Moreover, the development of new antibiotics is becoming increasingly difficult and is unable to keep pace with the rapid emergence of resistant pathogens. Hence, novel drugs and new approaches to develop them are urgently needed. Both de novo drug discovery and drug repurposing have been used in the search for an effective antibiotic. Unlike the lengthy and costly process of de novo drug discovery, drug repurposing can reduce the time, cost and risk associated with drug innovation. Drug repurposing has already resulted in successes in a number of disease areas, including infectious diseases. Though antibiotics have been repurposed for other clinical indications, to date, not a single non-antibiotic drug has been repurposed for use as an antibacterial. Given the crucial problem posed by multidrug resistant pathogens, especially ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp), there is an unmet need for methods for drug repurposing to facilitate uncovering new treatment options.